Alexandra Azúa Hale — Sleeping Beauty [The Colonial Crisis]

Migration is a subject with a saturated presence in the contemporary. The so-called ‘migration crisis’, with its volatile and complex nature, has taken centre-stage in conjunction with the right wing rhetoric that is sweeping the West. Yet increased media attention equates to increased simplification. Representations depict the current of movement of people as an unprecedented occurrence that Europe has no connection with, but must bear the brunt of. But history may suggest a different story.

Europe’s colonial past is both robust and uncomfortable; a strong sense of denial encloses its ever-present nature. From the drawing of borders, to current globalising tendencies and the segregation of space and people, the current divide between us and them is continuously reinforced. The ‘migration crisis’ demonstrates a relationship of extreme power imbalance between Europe and those fleeing the Middle East/North Africa, with the latter continuously demonised and rejected. This short-film seeks to analyse and deconstruct current migration images through a historical and political lens, in the hope that Europe wakes up to the atrocity it has and is perpetuating.